Oak Ridge boys defense wears on Mavericks

Basketball coaches will tell you that a good defense will lead to points. Oak Ridge coach Aaron Green, a stalwart for the defensive cause, probably didn’t mean it necessarily the way it happened Tuesday.

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By Robert Holder

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Robert Holder

Posted Nov. 29, 2012 at 7:00 AM

By Robert Holder

Posted Nov. 29, 2012 at 7:00 AM

CLINTON

Basketball coaches will tell you that a good defense will lead to points. Oak Ridge coach Aaron Green, a stalwart for the defensive cause, probably didn’t mean it necessarily the way it happened Tuesday.

Rashad Gray trapped an Anderson County Maverick near the Wildcats three-point line and tipped his opponent’s pass in the air where it made its way into the Oak Ridge hoop for two points. All coach Green could do was throw up his hands to ask if it was a 3-pointer in amazement.

The Wildcats won their first District 3-AAA game going away 68-29 against Anderson County, holding the Mavs to just nine points in the second half.

“You hold a team to nine points in the second half, and they had one guy with 12 in the first half,” coach Green said. “We hang our hat on the defensive end.”

The defense helped Oak Ridge (4-0, 1-0 in District 3-AAA) begin a tear at 5:00 to go in the first quarter. The Wildcats went on a 16-0 run, their first of three clamp-downs on the Mavericks that saw Anderson County go scoreless for more than four and a half minutes. The 16-0 run lasted eight minutes going into the second quarter.

The offense came despite Anderson County’s best efforts to take Oak Ridge’s post players out of the scoring equation. Guards Jaylin Henderson, Cory Fagan, Demauray McClanahan and Rian Hall were more than glad to pick up the slack. Henderson scored 17 to lead the ‘Cats while Fagan chipped in 14 to shoot Anderson County (2-3, 0-1) out of the zone. McClanahan and Hall had 10 each coming off the bench.

“They played a pack in zone and gave us a lot of looks, and we made a lot of them,” Green said. “It’s encouraging because it will make us that much harder to guard.

“We want to play inside-out ... by making shots it helps us offensively by stretching the floor so we can get the ball inside on the pass and on the drive . We’re going to see a lot of that this year, some sagging zones, but I think it will be hard to guard us either zone or man because we have guys that can shoot it, that can drive it and some guys that can score inside.”

The shooting and defensive pressure and depth wore on as the game went along. All 12 players got in during the contest and 11 scored. Despite subbing, the ‘Cats production didn’t waver.

It’s our 12 versus their six or seven,” Green said. “We have 10 guys who could start and that’s what makes this team, hopefully, special.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s not easy to share those minutes. Everybody wants to play. You have to buy into doing that and know that that’s an advantage our team has — to use the depth and athleticism and wear teams down. You have to have an unselfish team to do that and that’s what we have.”

Anderson County was led by Kevin Elliott’s 12 in the first half. Elliott hit four of the Mavs six 3-pointers but didn’t get another basket in the game.